AI Helps UK Woman Rediscover Lost Voice After 25 Years

AFP | London

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A British woman who lost her voice due to motor neurone disease (MND) has regained the ability to speak in her own voice after 25 years, thanks to artificial intelligence and an eight-second clip from an old home video.

Sarah Ezekiel, an artist from north London, was diagnosed with MND at the age of 34 while pregnant with her second child. The progressive condition damages muscles involved in speech, leaving many sufferers unable to talk.

For years, Ezekiel relied on voice-generating technology that did not sound like her own, while continuing her artistic career using a computer cursor. Her children, Aviva and Eric, had grown up never hearing their mother’s natural voice.

Experts from the UK medical communication company Smartbox, led by Simon Poole, turned to AI technology developed by ElevenLabs in New York. Despite the limited quality and length of the home video clip, AI tools were able to isolate Ezekiel’s voice and reconstruct it realistically, preserving her accent and subtle speech characteristics.

The result brought Ezekiel to tears. “It was like having her own voice back,” Poole said. The UK Motor Neurone Disease Association notes that eight in 10 sufferers experience voice difficulties, and AI-driven personalized voices are emerging as a way to restore identity and expressiveness for those affected.

This breakthrough demonstrates how AI can preserve personal identity and provide emotional connection for people affected by speech-loss conditions.